


After the Fires

by CuriosityRedux



Series: Dragon Drabbles Berk [38]
Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Hiccstrid - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-26
Updated: 2018-11-26
Packaged: 2019-08-30 00:06:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16754050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CuriosityRedux/pseuds/CuriosityRedux
Summary: The happenings of the few days between the Red Death and Hiccup's awakening.





	After the Fires

**After the Fires**

**-**

**Day one.**

She knocked on the front door to the Haddock house with more than just a little trepidation. She’d grown up around the chief her whole life, but never exchanged more than a couple of sentences here and there. But now she was going and asking to sit with his son. A tight knot of anxiety tugged at her bellybutton. 

For some reason, she expected the door to swing open. He was a big man, she’d thought there’d always be big gestures. But it opened quietly and calmly, and the enormous man looked down at her with a raised brow. “Evenin’, Astrid. Yeh just missed the other kids.”

“I know.” She wrung her hands but forced herself not to drop her chin or break his gaze. “I was just wondering if— if I could sit with him a while.” Feeling the need to go on, she added, “We got some temporary shelters set up for the dragons. And Gobber was drawing up some plans for some feeding troughs. I thought— or I figured maybe if you wanted to go have a look, I could watch Hiccup.”

The burly Viking smiled behind his thick beard. It was a warm smile, a  _dad_  kind of smile. The sort of expression that told her he knew she wasn’t there for  _his_ sake. “Well, I wouldn’t mind a chance to check on the other’s. Heard Hoark got ‘imself a nasty burn, but haven’t been able to see ‘im.”

She nodded, and he opened the door to let her in. Not waiting for him to show her the way, she tried not to move  _too_  quickly to the bed that had been moved downstairs. At the sight of the boy beneath the covers, something strange smoothed over all the frazzled worries in her chest. There was a chair still sitting by the bedside, and she lowered herself into it. 

“I’ll be back in an hour or two,” Stoick told her as he secured his helmet on his head. “Shout for someone if he wakes.”

Astrid nodded, secretly glad to see him go. As soon as the door shut behind him, she reached for Hiccup’s warm hand. The relief she felt being back at his side made the weariness she’d been feeling melt away. Her eyes burned from a lack of sleep. She tried to remember the last time she’d been in bed— after a moment of thought, she realized it had to have been the morning of Hiccup’s big final test. It had all unraveled so quickly. 

She inspected the boy’s sleeping face. After they brought his mangled body back from the dragon nest, she’d spent half the night pacing in front of Gothi’s house. Stoick had let her and Toothless sit with Hiccup for a while before they moved him, but when dawn broke, she was pulled away. They’d needed her advice with the sudden influx of dragons.  _Her_  help, when she’d first trusted a dragon less than forty-eight hours ago. It was ludicrous, but she went.

Closing her eyes, she laced her fingers with his and rested her cheek on the edge of his bed. The sound of the fire crackling in the hearth was the only noise beside the constant, steady sound of Hiccup’s breathing. That was what she fell asleep to.

**Day two.**

She pounded at the chief’s front door. When he didn’t answer right away, she swore under her breath and let herself in. Her mother would have beaten her senseless if she knew she’d barged into the chief’s house, but the panicked thudding of her heart was almost painful.

A small group was gathered around Hiccup’s bed. Stoick was in the chair she usually occupied, while Gothi leaned over Hiccup and Gobber stood at his feet. They all turned to look at her.

“I heard,” she swallowed. A small part of her wished her breathing wasn’t so heavy, that they wouldn’t notice she’d run the whole way. “What’s going on?”

Gothi went back to her work. Stoick rubbed his face with his giant hands. Gobber hobbled over and placed his good hand on her shoulder. “It’s infected,” he told her quietly, and Astrid felt like there was a fist squeezing her throat shut. “He’s runnin’ a pretty nasty fever, but we’re doin’ what we can.”

“Can I stay?” Her anxious gaze moved from her mentor to her chief, and the Viking looked back at her sympathetically. He must have felt terrible, and she wasn’t making it easy, bursting in at all hours of the night. Pangs of guilt joined the jumble of distress in her chest. “I’ll keep out of the way.”

Stoick nodded, and she took up a space on the floor across the room. She couldn’t see Hiccup’s face, but she almost didn’t want to. What she really wanted was to have his hand in hers again. No, she  _really_ wanted him to wake up. The whole thing— the whole  _week_  was starting to feel like one extremely long and painful nightmare. Her feelings for that stupid boy had been pulled in so many directions, and suddenly  _dragons_  were  _good_ , and everything had changed, and all she wanted was to talk about it with Hiccup. Who she’d ignored, suspected, threatened. Because when he talked about things, he made her believe they were possible.

“Damn it,” she whispered, pulling her knees to her chest. “Please wake up.”

**Day three.**

The front door shut quietly behind her. Astrid turned to see the chief hanging his helmet on its hook.

“He’s still not awake,” she blurted, her voice sounding as tight as her body felt. “He should be awake by now, right?”

Stoick gave her another one of those smiles. The kind that made her feel like he knew something she didn’t. “Forgot yeh were here for a second.”

“It’s been three days. The fever’s gone, the bump on his head’s gone, so shouldn’t he be awake by now?” Her hands were trembling, but when she squeezed Hiccup’s hand tight, she could almost convince herself they were still.

Stoick dragged a second chair over to the bed and fell into it. Sighing, he slung his arm around her and patted her head. “He’ll be up soon. I can tell.”

“How?” A faint blush burned at her cheeks. She didn’t want to let go of his hand, but with his father sitting there, she didn’t want to seem so forward either. Astrid felt torn. “Did Gothi say so?”

The chief shook his head, looking at his son with a calmness she wished she had. “He was a sick baby. Yeh probably didn’t know that.”

She shook her head.

The corner of his mouth dragged upwards. “He pulled through that too. He’s small. Skinny. But he’s strong.” He gave her shoulder a squeeze. “He’ll be fine.”

Astrid pressed her lips into a grim line, but took a deep breath. She still felt like a string pulled too tight, but Stoick’s words did help somewhat. 

For what must have been the thousandth time that day, there was a scratching sound on the roof. A Night Fury’s whine keened loudly.

“Damned beast’ll tear the house apart at this rate,” the Viking muttered.

She brushed a thumb across Hiccup’s knuckles. “You should let him in. He’ll ask for him first thing. When he wakes up.”

Stoick’s eyes moved from the sleeping boy to the girl. “Yeh think so?”

She nodded.

He grinned, and this time she felt like maybe she knew just as much as him. “Alright, then. Let the creature in.”


End file.
